''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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something which is not easy to imagine even for the
reader who, moreover, is in a much better position,
as he has Humbert's memoir from which to piece together
the evidence.
It might even be argued that Lolita is in fact
superior to everybody else in her reactions and decisions.
Considering her upbringing and the example
that even her mother sets her, she can be said to have
amazingly healthy reactions to things. She leaves
Humbert because she does not love him and gives up
material security; she refuses to do the filthy things
expected of her on Quilty's ranch because she loves
and wants only him, and suffers herself to be thrown
out, having to renounce the hopes he has evoked in
her of having a tryout in Hollywood, even "a bit part
in the tennis-match scene of a movie picture" based
on a Quilty play (269). Considering her passion for
the movie world one can imagine what a sacrifice this
must be for her. And after this she drifts for two
years, does restaurant work in small places and eventually
meets and marries and is faithful to, wholly
unglamorous Dick Schiller.
Another shattering statement has been made about
Lolita: "Lolita has no soul, no identity", says one
critic, "(which is why she acts so well).,,
57
If
one is
to believe the testimony of others, Lolit4 does very
well in the rehearsals for The Enchanted Hunters.
Margot, too, is given the chance to act in a film,
but it turns out in the preview that she acts "atro-
ciously" (121), a fact that Albinus finds touching